


Killing Joke

by sinnerman



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-12
Updated: 2011-04-12
Packaged: 2017-10-17 23:34:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/182548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinnerman/pseuds/sinnerman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snippet.  Unfinished implications.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Killing Joke

Stop me if you've heard this one. A boy sneaks out of school to meet a friend, and instead finds himself chased into the Forbidden Forest by a wolf. No, you haven't heard this story, have you? I haven't told anyone, so that's not so surprising.

I can see myself, clumsily pulling myself out of the wolf's reach into a tree, hoping that would be safer. Until I saw what was nesting there - and I had to quickly decide how I wanted to die, since being killed seemed to be my only remaining option.

I jumped out of the tree, which rather surprised the wolf, but the spiders followed me. The wolf jumped back, then attacked them. I ran off, which seemed to be the best choice. Let the monsters kill each other. I heard the wolf howl in pain, and I turned to see the two beasts overpowering the wolf. I didn't have my wand with me, but I did have some firecrackers - and I don't think I will tell you why. I hurled them at the spiders, and they exploded to take off two legs from one and three from the other.

Now it was the wolf's turn to get some joy from them, and it ripped them apart. I didn't watch – I don't really like arachnids, or in fact any animal with more than four legs. I walked over to a nearby stream, which I could only hope was in the direction of school. I loathed that infernal forest then, and I still hate it now.

After a few minutes, I saw the wolf approaching. It was walking unsteadily, not exactly limping, but it made me wonder if the spiders were poisonous. The wolf looked at me once, but decided to ignore me and started to drink from the stream. Suddenly it swayed, and lay down on the bank of the stream.

I can't be sure why I decided to help a beast that had been ravening after me mere moments ago, but I will put it down to the fact that I could see herbs that would be useful all around me. I started to make a poultice, and walked carefully over to the wolf. It growled at me, sort of helplessly as I recall, but it didn't move. There was a full moon that night, and I cleaned the wolf's wounds, using my robes for bandages when necessary.

I settled down to watch, because if I had made the antidote incorrectly, the wolf would go mad in a few minutes and then die. Instead, the wolf raised its head and licked my hand in gratitude before thirstily lapping at the stream. I smiled, as I recall, with real pride in my skill. I petted the wolf's head, feeling that we were friends now.

We heard the sound at the same moment, a whisper-soft brush of a giant leg against leaves. The wolf turned to look, then bounded over the stream. I followed without turning. We ran, heading I knew not where, and I didn't care, just so long as it was somewhere they couldn't follow. The wolf turned sharply, and started up the side of a roughly sloping hill. There was a cave there, small enough for a wolf and barely the size of a man. Once I realized our destination, I doubled my speed, pulling the wolf behind me when it lagged.

I never looked back to see, but I know that we made it there safely. We slid into the cave, the wolf first and I followed after, with his jaws around my sleeve frantically pulling me into safety while I tried not hear anything behind me. We went as far back into the cave as we could, and lay there huddled together in terror at the sounds outside. Two mammals together, a man and his dog, cowering in a cave. It is a primal image, and a strangely comforting one that I do not think I will ever forget.

Finally, they left. I slumped back against the wall of the cave, and the wolf lay its head down in my lap. I scratched it behind the ears, and it whined appreciatively. Now that we were no longer in danger of our lives, the wolf gave in to the pain of its wounds, whining softly and trying to find some way to lay down that wouldn't hurt. I thought about leaving for school again, but I didn't want to just abandon my new friend. I made a rough bed out of my cloak, and lay down next to the wolf. Neither of us were really comfortable, but it was better than being alone and far better than being out there where the real monsters were. I fell asleep, warm, one hand entwined in soft, dark fur.

Imagine my surprise on waking, to find myself with a shivering young man in my arms. Not only was he cold, but the poison was still working its way through his body, affecting him differently as a human than it had as a wolf. His eyes were closed, and I could tell he was in a bad state. I covered him with the cloak, and decided to risk a trip outside to find more herbs. I recall being not at all disturbed by the fact that I had spent the night with a werewolf.

Sunlight had cleared away the monsters, as sunlight will. There was a unicorn drinking from the stream, and it completely ignored me as I picked some herbs from the banks of the stream, even moving aside to let me get to a particularly thick clump of foxglove. I searched my pockets, for something I could use to carry water to my friend. I ended up using the plastic bag the firecrackers had been in, as I recall, and I brought everything back to the cave.

He was shivering with fever, and I worked quickly. He looked familiar, as if I had seen him before, which I knew to be impossible. He looked young enough to be a student, but it was beyond belief that there would be a werewolf student at Hogwarts'. After I had done all I could for him with the herbs from the stream, I tried to make him comfortable. I remember I was holding his head in my lap, playing with his hair, and that was how you found me.

I shudder to think of how I must have looked. Scratched from the trees and the wild climb up the hill, my clothes ripped and torn for bandages, my hair mussed from sleep and my hands covered with earth from digging for herbs.

You were pale and terrified, and you stared at me. "Did he - did he do that to you?" you asked.

And only then did it come home to me that he was a werewolf, and I started to laugh. "No, no, Severus, don't worry. He can't infect me." I remember being amused by your fear, and I decided I wouldn't tell you why it was a foolish one for a long time. I don't think I ever did tell you, come to think of it. "Give me your cloak," I commanded, and you obeyed me, as you always did. How your senseless adoration turned my head, Severus!

"Do you know him?" I asked, and you snarled in answer that he was a Gryffindor, and a werewolf. I laughed again, and you were angry with me. But when I told you that he had been hurt protecting me, you calmed down. If he had only died of his wounds that day, I think you would have forgiven him for whatever it was he had done to you.

Together we wrapped the wounded young man in your cloak, and by the time Crabbe and Goyle arrived, we were ready to take him back to school. He was breathing shallowly, and you stared so furiously at me because I was worried about him. But you weren't brave enough to stop me from running my hands through his hair and petting him, no matter how jealous you were. We brought him to the infirmary, and you left with Crabbe and Goyle while I stayed to have my scratches seen to, and I explained what herbs I had used on him. I knew you wanted to stay with me, but I wanted to be alone with him.

Madame Pomfrey - so much younger then - left us alone together eventually, and I stood over him, to watch him sleep. She had known what he was; and cautioned me to come to her if I felt any changes in the next month. I ignored her warning. I knew myself to be safe from his curse.

I watched him sleeping there, in the half-light of the infirmary, and I had to touch him again. A werewolf. I ran my hand down the side of his face, coming to rest on his throat. I could feel his strong heart beating under my hand, I could feel the blood flowing warm and fast.

Just as I knew he couldn't hurt me, I knew I couldn't hurt him. And that's why I wanted to be alone with him. That's why I turned to Remus instead of you, Severus.

I bent over him, smelling the warm fevered flesh, hearing the steady whisper of his blood. I licked first, tasting him. Beneath his sweat, beneath his skin, I could taste it. I could feel his blood pulsing under my tongue.

A small bite, that's all I took. A light caress of the teeth, and his skin ripped open, and his blood poured into my mouth. I pressed my lips closer to his skin, not letting a single drop escape. He woke up then, arching up into my kiss with a half-growl that was more like myself in my hunger than I would have expected.

He pushed me away, and I let him go. I had what I wanted. He stared at me, his golden eyes wild. I think, for those first moments, he had not realized yet that he was a human. Slowly, the wildness faded from his eyes, and he just watched me as I licked my lips clean.

"You bit me."

Those were his first words to me.

I smiled at him. "A bad habit of mine," I explained. "I'm part vampire."

He nodded slowly, and looked around the infirmary. "Did I hurt anyone?" he asked.

I shook my head. "You saved me from some spiders in the Forbidden Forest. You were hurt."

"I saved you, so you bite me," he observed with some humor. He was still staring at me.

"Yes," I answered. "Next time, I promise I will ask first." He half-smiled, unsure if I was serious. Suddenly, it hit me, the flush of taken blood, and I staggered. It had been so long since I had tasted fresh blood. Have you ever had a glass of fresh, cold water after being without anything to drink for a long time? Have you ever felt how the water just seeps into your mouth and throat, becoming part of you at the first touch, and then a moment after, the feeling of pure relief that quenching your thirst brings?

Yes, Severus, perhaps you should move a little farther away. You have no potions for this curse, except one that you were born with.

He sprang out of bed to help me, uncaring that he was naked and still injured. He was not as badly hurt as he had been before. His werewolf blood was already working quickly to heal him, and again I found myself with this lean, naked young man in my arms.

I would have thanked him, but he was staring at me again. Impulsively, he moved forward, tilting his head up and back, exposing his suntanned throat to me. I hesitated for only a moment, then my instinct took me forward. I sank my teeth into his neck again.

I heard him growl in my arms, and we lost our humanity for a moment. We were nothing but two wild beasts, locked in an embrace and bound by blood, something above passion, above need. Hunger. Thirst. And nothing more.

I drank my fill this time, and pulled away, to see him panting and hot with desire. He put his hand to his neck, to touch the place where my lips had burned possession into his flesh, but the wound had already closed. He leaned back against the infirmary cot, shaking. Shyly, almost, I moved forward to kiss him, to place my hands against his hot skin.

He kissed me fiercely, licking his own blood from my lips, and forced my hand to close over his stiff cock. I stroked him, feeding his wildness with my kisses. "Again," he whispered savagely, and forced my mouth down. I could no more resist his pleas than I could resist the passage of time. Again, I felt his blood, rich and warm, inside me, becoming part of me. His body shuddered under my hands, and he clutched at me, and I could feel him fighting back a scream of ecstasy.

I looked up to find he had bitten back the scream, and a thin rivulet of blood was streaming from his lips. I kissed it away, licked it away.

"Next time," he whispered, "I want you inside me."

That was how I became involved with Remus Lupin. So you will forgive me for sheltering him, won't you, Severus? Just as you wouldn't turn me in for what I am, I couldn't let Remus be taken away for what he is. But you needn't worry. He's gone now, and I'm ... I'm going home. Alone.

"Lucius!"

I can hear you calling me, but I can't go back to you. Not tonight. Perhaps another night, Severus. But I know I cannot be with you now.

Not until the moon sets, and the hunt is over, and Remus has had enough of me. Perhaps I will be safe for you then, Severus. But I'm not sure.

 

So he told you, didn't he? Yes, I knew about you two. I always knew. I could smell him on you, and I could smell you on him. It only made me want him more. You saw him all the time, you lived in the same House, you could sleep in his bed anytime you wanted to.

But I could give him something you couldn't. I could feed a hunger you didn't even know he had. And he gave me something I didn't know I needed, Severus.

He tamed me, Severus. He made the wild thing inside me part of me.

I know you don't understand, any more than you really understand how Lucius - your precious, beloved Lucius - could have been a blood-drinker all these years, and you never knew about it.

I'm actually surprised you never guessed. He was always a taker, wasn't he? Dear, masterful Lucius. You were his friend all these years, but did you ever really feel like you were his equal? Is it really impossible to imagine that he would have someday turned to you as meat and drink for the beast inside him?

Is it really such a stretch to imagine him taking your life's blood to sate his own hunger? You can see it, can't you Severus?

How far would your submission to Lucius have gone, if it came to that? Would you have fought for your life, or would you have just tilted your head back, and let him drink his fill?

Do you love him enough to die for him, Severus? He loves you too much to kill you. And that's why he's protecting me, Severus.

 

They both came and told me their side of the story tonight.

I wish they hadn't. I didn't really want to know. Or if I had to know... I wish they had told me yesterday.

Before this happened.

He stretches, unaware that anyone else has come into the room while he slept, and sits up. The sheets, black flannel because I like the color, slide away, revealing his perfect ivory skin. I did not invite him there, but I wasn't strong enough to turn him away.

And now, it is too late.

"What's wrong?" he asks. His voice is deliberately sweet and light, and his silver eyes hold mine against my will.

"Nothing," I answer, but he knows I am lying.

He rises from the bed, his incredible grace terrifying and beautiful at the same time now that I know the truth of what he is. He places his pale arms around my neck, and kisses my cheek, and I cannot help myself. I shudder slightly and pull away from his touch.

"What's wrong?" he asks, and he sounds hurt.

I consider prevarication, but it goes against my nature. I push him away.

"Don't touch me," I say, and it comes out more harshly than I had intended. "You're a vampire." My disgust is obvious, even to me.

He gasps in shock, and I can see the hurt in his face. "So? I'm only part vampire. I didn't bite! I wouldn't!" He smiles slyly. "Unless you asked me to. Are you going to ask me to?"


End file.
